fetchmail README

fetchmail is a full-featured, robust, well-documented POP2, POP3,
APOP, and IMAP batch mail retrieval/forwarding utility intended to be
used over on-demand TCP/IP links (such as SLIP or PPP connections).
It retrieves mail from remote mail servers and forwards it to your
local (client) machine's delivery system, so it can then be be read by
normal mail user agents such as elm(1) or Mail(1).

The fetchmail code was developed under Linux, but should be readily
portable to other Unix variants (it uses GNU autoconf).  It has also
been ported to QNX; to build under QNX, see the header comments in the
Makefile.

Here are fetchmail's main features.  Those unique to fetchmail
(relative to fetchpop1.9, PopTart-0.9.3, get-mail, gwpop, pimp-1.0,
pop-perl5-1.2, popc, popmail-1.6 and upop) are marked with **.

	*  **POP2, POP3, **APOP, **IMAP2bis, **IMAP4 support.

	** Support for Kerberos user authentication (either MIT or Cygnus).

	** Host is auto-probed for a working server if no protocol is
	   specified for the connection.  Thus you don't need to know
	   what servers are running on your mail host in advance; the
	   verbose option will tell you which one succeeds.

	** Delivery via via SMTP to the client machine's port 25.  This
	   means the retrieved mail automatically goes to the system
	   default MDA as if it were normal sender-initiated SMTP mail.

	** Timeout if server connection is dropped.

	** Support for retrieving and forwarding from multi-drop mailboxes
	   that is guaranteed not to cause mail loops.

	*  Easy control via command line or free-format run control file.

	*  Daemon mode -- fetchmail can be run in background to poll
	   one or more hosts at a specified interval.

	*  From:, To:, Cc:, and Reply-To: headers are rewritten so that 
	   usernames relative to the fetchmail host become fully-qualified
	   Internet addresses.  This enables replies to work correctly.
	   (Would be unique to fetchmail if I hadn't added it to fetchpop.)

	*  Strict conformance to relevant RFCs and good debugging options.
	   You could use fetchmail to test and debug server implementatations.

	*  Carefully written, comprehensive and up-to-date man page describing
	   not only modes of operation but also (**) how to diagnose the most
	   common kinds of problems and what to do about deficient servers

	*  Rugged, simple, and well-tested code -- the author relies on it
           every day and it has never lost mail, not even in experimental
	   versions.

	*  Large user community -- fetchmail has a large user base (the
	   author's beta list includes over a hundred people).  This means
	   feedback is rapid, bugs get found and fixed rapidly.

The fetchmail code appears to be stable and free of bugs affecting
normal operation (that is, retrieving from POP3 or IMAP and forwarding
99via SMTP to sendmail).  It will probably undergo substantial change
only if and when support for a new retrieval protocol or authentication
is added.  See the distribution files NEWS for detailed information on
recent changes and NOTES for design notes.

You can easily fetch the latest version of fetchmail  via FTP from the
following FTP directory:

	ftp://ftp.ccil.org/pub/esr/fetchmail

Or you can get it from Eric's home page:

	http://www.ccil.org/~esr

Just chase the link to Eric's Freeware Collection.  Besides fetchmail, it
includes a tasty selection of Web authoring tools, programmer's aids,
graphics libraries, compilers for bizarre languages, games, and 
miscellaneous interesting hacks.  Enjoy!

							-- esr